Next Question
by PerrythePlatypusGirl
Summary: Of all the Paladins, Pidge and Keith knew each other the least. Now that they're stuck in some cave together, Pidge decides she wants to change that.


"Damn it," Keith muttered as he looked up at the wall of boulders before him. It was just his luck for something like this to happen. He'd taken Pidge into this cave on instinct to hide from the monstrous aliens chasing them down, but like a cliche scene from a movie, a bunch of boulders had blocked their exit, and now they were stuck.

Keith took a deep breath to keep from getting frustrated. "Shiro?" He called into his comm. "Guys? Can you hear me?"

 _"Keith?"_ Shiro replied. _"What's going on, where are you?"_

"Pidge and I got trapped in one of the caves. The exit's blocked and we can't get out."

 _"Seriously?"_ Lance shouted from his end. _"We've kinda got our hands full right now!"_

 _"Just sit tight,"_ Shiro interrupted him. _"We'll come get you when we can, okay?"_

"Ok." Keith sighed, and took off his helmet to run a hand through his hair. He really hated that he couldn't aid his teammates in whatever fight they were dealing with right now, but it's not like getting upset would change that. So instead, he turned to where Pidge was sitting next to her makeshift lantern, drawing circles in the dirt with her finger, and sat down next to her.

"You okay?" Keith asked, making Pidge look up.

"I'm fine," she replied. "Is someone coming to get us?"

"They're dealing with something right now, but yes. They should be here."

Pidge nodded.

For a while they merely sat there in silence. Pidge was toying with whatever was on the ground nearby, and Keith simply sat back and stared upward, trying not to dwell on their situation too much. Lord knows he would come up with some horrifying possibilities if he allowed his mind to wander too far, so he tried to focus on something else.

Pidge, on the other hand, wasn't afraid to let her mind wander. In fact, as the wait grew longer, the girl started to get restless. And aside from Keith checking in with Shiro every now and then, it was silent and _boring._ She tried to get up and walk around their dead-end cave a little bit, but it was just rocks, nothing interesting. And to make matters worse, her rear end was starting to ache as she continued to sit there.

"How long did they say they would take?"

Keith shrugged. "No idea. They just said they'd get here when they can."

Pidge huffed, and once again started looking around for something to distract herself with. Eventually, her gaze landed on her teammate, who was sitting down leaning against his knees. Keith was clearly just as restless as she was right now, but was better at hiding it. She didn't know how he was doing it, but then again, she really didn't know much about Keith to begin with.

...which was weird, now that she thought about it. Weren't the Paladins supposed to have a super strong bond with each other or something? She already knew Lance, Hunk and Shiro pretty well, but Keith was still a mystery to her. All she knew was that he'd been living in a desert shack for some reason and that he'd been Lance's rival ...though she was unsure if the latter was really true.

Keith somehow sensed that she was looking and turned to her curiously. "What?"

Pidge flinched slightly. "Sorry, I was just thinking about something."

"Oh."

Pidge hesitated for a second, then continued. "You know, Keith, it's occurred to me that we don't really know each other?" She paused as Keith gave her a confused look, then continued. "I mean-we'd only just met before this whole thing began, and then suddenly we have to be like, brothers in arms-well, metaphorically, speaking, I mean-I guess we'd technically brother and _sister_ in arms, sort of..."

She trailed off, and noticed that Keith was giving her an amused grin. He leaned back against the wall and shrugged. "Well, if you wanted to get to know me, you could have just asked-what do you want to know?"

"Uh, what?"

"Ask me whatever you want, I'm an open book," Keith sighed. "It's not like we have anything better to do."

Pidge blinked as she mulled over his words. It was a little weird, and Keith seemed like the last person who would be an "open book," but well, what the heck, there wasn't any harm to it.

Pidge thought for a moment and asked the first thing that came to mind. "Ok, uh...what's your...favorite color?"

Keith scoffed. "Red, obviously. What else would it be?"

"Wow, really? Just picking the color of your lion? Uncreative."

"Yeah? And what's _your_ favorite color?"

Pidge paused, considering if she should lie to him but sighing instead. "Green..."

"Green is not a creative color."

Pidge narrowed her eyes at him, not knowing if she should be angry at the way he was smirking right now or just baffled that he'd gone and referenced that old joke.

So she just dropped it completely. "Fine. I'll ask a better question. Umm...why were you living in a shack?"

Keith's smile disappeared. For a second Pidge worried that she'd overstepped her boundaries, but then he just shrugged.

"Nowhere else to go," he muttered. "I'd found that place a while back, so I decided to live there. Plus, I was being drawn out there by the Blue Lion, so, you know..."

Oh yeah, that energy thing he'd talked about. Pidge still had no idea what that meant, but she didn't really want to pry at this subject anymore. "Ok, next question...umm...oh, here's one that's been bugging me-how did you figure out that I was a girl before I told everyone?"

This time, Keith laughed. "Because I recognized you."

Pidge blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Uh, well, it was kind of a long time ago now...do you remember when you snuck into the garrison and hacked their records for info about the Kerberos mission?"

Pidge's eyes widened. "How'd you know about that?"

"Because I saw you," Keith snickered. But then he frowned once more. "I was looking for answers too, you know. Shiro and I were really close, and then he just disappeared and I was...mad."

Keith sighed. "So I was sneaking around that night, but you beat me to it, and I saw you getting kicked out." He then smirked again. "And then a year later some tiny kid who looks a whole lot like Matt Holt is standing in my shack, and I just kinda figured it out."

"...huh," Pidge replied when he was done. "I must be really bad at sneaking around."

"Yep."

She shot him a glare as he smirked again. Then rested her head on her knees. "So you met Matt, huh?"

"Once or twice," Keith replied with a shrug. "Mostly when he was hanging out with Shiro."

Pidge nodded slowly, sinking into a short silence.

"He mentioned that you used to watch Sesame Street until you were twelve, is that true?"

Pidge's face turned bright red, which was all the answer Keith needed, and he burst out laughing again.

Pidge reached over and shoved him. "You'd better not tell anyone about that, you dumb mullet! And besides, _I'm_ the one asking the questions around here!"

Keith stopped laughing. "Oh my G-Did you just call me _Mullet?_ " He shoved her right back and she yelped. "You picked that up from _Lance_ , didn't you?"

"Maybe," Pidge giggled.

"Why do you even hang around him? He's obnoxious!"

"Yeah but sometimes he's funny too."

"He's the worst influence, though." Keith rolled his eyes and muttered, "fricking _Mullet..."_

Pidge smirked and adjusted her glasses. "Ok, who do think is a _good_ influence? You?"

"I don't know-Hunk, Allura, Shiro-just, not Lance is what I'm saying."

"Shiro? Shiro acts like such a dad though."

"Only to you, cause you're little."

Pidge smacked his arm again. "I am not!"

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!" Pidge's cheeks puffed out in her annoyance, making Keith laugh again. After a moment, she joined him.

"Ok, last question," Pidge began through her giggles. "Are you an alien?"

 _"What?!"_

His reaction was enough to make her laugh one more time. "Ok, ok, I'm kidding. That's just kind of an inside joke with me and the others."

"I don't even- _no_ , I'm not-what the hell, Pidge?"

This time it was Keith's turn to huff in annoyance while Pidge snickered at him. And then it was quiet again, but this time it was a comfortable silence, no awkwardness between them.

"You're not as scary as I thought, Keith." Pidge mused.

Keith raised an eyebrow. "Why would I be scary?"

"Dude, you keep a knife by your bedside."

"Hey, I lived alone, ok? It's a survival thing-and how did you even know that?"

Pidge paused and bit her lip. "Uh...castle..monitoring systems?"

"You were _spying_ on me?"

"No, I was just looking through some of the footage, and I saw the knife." She offered him a sheepish smile, but he simply squinted at her.

"I think _you're_ the scary one around here."

Pidge was about to say more, but was interrupted by a rumbling noise coming from outside the cave. She and Keith both tensed up, and Keith immediately pulled her out of the way as the rocks at the front of the cave began to give way.

The wall collapsed, and there was Lance, standing proudly atop his Lion with his arms spread. "Fear not, little caged birds!" He cried. "Your hero has arrived!"

"A little heads up would've been nice!" Keith snapped. "You almost crushed us!"

Lance muttered a "sorry" as he hopped down from his lion and ran over to them. "You guys are okay, right?"

"We're fine, Lance..." said Pidge.

"What we're you guys doing in there? Keith, you weren't putting any moves on her, were you?" There was a twinge of envy in his voice, or maybe Pidge was imagining things.

Keith rolled his eyes. "No, Lance. I'm not like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Guys," Pidge came between them. "Let's just regroup with the others, okay?"

That seemed to shut them up for the moment, and they started to head off. Pidge turned to Keith with a smirk.

"When we get back to the castle, I'm gonna get back at you for calling me little."

Keith smirked. "Oh, no, I'm so scared."

"Didn't you say I was the real scary one?"

Pidge couldn't help but feel satisfied when his eyes widened and he whispered, _"Shit."_


End file.
